


A Mother's Betrayal

by theonlineidofme



Series: The Diverging Emblems [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Murder, Complicated Relationships, Don't copy to another site, Execution, Gen, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Matricide, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:27:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23076259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theonlineidofme/pseuds/theonlineidofme
Summary: King Garon once had many children. Before Anankos, before King Sumeragi's death, his court had been filled with his children.And they had all turned on each and blood flowed in the halls, and the court filled with silence.Camilla watches her remaining siblings and waits for the silence to end, for The Mothers' War to become bloody and deadly once more.She does not expect to be the first to reinvigorate that conflict.
Series: The Diverging Emblems [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1658494
Kudos: 12





	A Mother's Betrayal

**Author's Note:**

> All age disparties from what's implied in canon is very intentional. Just wanted to let everyone know up front.
> 
> Have fun :3
> 
> Edit: Also because while it's not a huge deal anymore I should still make the habit but...I don't own Fire Emblem (well, the creative rights, I own some of the games), nor did I help create it. It's older than me anyway

Camilla walked down the halls with the crown prince, Xander. He had his arms latched together behind his back, and his gait was stiff. His footsteps were intentionally loud and heavy, or as loud and heavy as he could do with leather boots.

Camilla glanced at the servants and guards watching them. There were whispers, and exchanges of notes from gloved hand to gloved hand. Their activities would be reported to Camilla and Xander’s younger siblings and their mothers.

The Mothers’ War was long and old and had started almost immediately after their father took the throne. Their older brother had been the heir before Xander, and so his crown was heavy with blood from the fallen heir and the blood spilled to catch it. Camilla’s own hands were stained for that gleam in her own mother’s eye.

“Training at dawn?” Xander asked. The youth placed his hand on his sword, which was an old and simple blade. He would one day wield Siegfried, as their father was finding the blade harder and harder to control at his age.

“Of course,” Camilla answered. She thrummed her fingers on the edge of a tome strapped to her side. “Shall I bring the magic, or will this be a blades only bout?”

“I need more practice against magic,” Xander answered. “And working with it, or…well.”

Xander looked around. Camilla and Xander could find which servant and guard were the eyes and ears of which siblings. Everyone knew why Xander had not yet proven himself to wield Siegfried, but admitting it aloud was asking for blood.

Except, the conflict had been calm. Their father had executed the last child who had murdered several siblings, and now Xander and Camilla were the oldest and most of their siblings were a few years younger than Camilla. Children, and at the bottom was an infant who had been named Leo. Their father showed clear favoritism for Xander, as the last child of Queen Katerina.

 _Though perhaps that will change,_ Camilla thought with a glance at a darkened hall. _What with father’s newest mistress._

A woman who already had a daughter. King Garon was besotted, and the rage bubbled under the castle floors.

“Understood,” Camilla finally answered. She smiled at Xander. She briefly closed her eyes, and then partially opened them. He gave a strained smile back.

The pair had stopped near their father’s wing of the castle. Xander’s quarters were near their father’s, and down the hall was the section for all of their father’s lovers and their children. Many women had left the castle disgraced after the loss of their children, even if King Garon still loved them, simply because of how heavy the crimes were on everyone in this castle.

King Garon’s court did nothing. They merely waited for the mothers to end it themselves, even if it meant wiping out all of the current heirs. Camilla sometimes wished she was the daughter of one of those apathetic nobles, or even a peasant, but it would never come to be.

She was a princess with the blood of the sacred dusk dragon. King Garon had recognized and blessed her birth, and named her Camilla.

“Good night,” Xander said. He gave a bow and turned to his quarters.

Camilla turned and walked to her wing of the castle. The halls were more brightly lit and the guards stiffer with gleaming weapons.

“If you will not stop,” her father had said after the execution to his family, with particular glares to the older children and mistresses, “then I will _also_ watch your activities within my castle walls.”

Xander left Camilla. He had turned softly away from her, back straight, face impassive. A model prince. It was all for show, Camilla knew, but perhaps he would one day feel like he was the model prince. What she would become the day he was the model heir inside and out was…Camilla pursed her lips and led her mind elsewhere.

Her quarters were close, but her mother’s was closer. Camilla turned back and retraced her and Xander’s steps. Camilla brushed her fingers over the tomes strapped to her side. Her eyes roved the halls. Servants darted in the dark, guards leered and glared.

 _There are only seven of us left,_ Camilla thought. _And one is a baby._

The newest prince. Leo. His mother had no other children to fight for their place. So she was cautious even when she sneered in dark halls at the other children in the way of Leo’s place on the throne.

Xander and Camilla were the oldest, but not significantly so. They and the other four were the last of the children from the last bloody massacre. No one had yet dare draw a blade, or slip poison into a glass. They remembered their father’s words, and they remembered the blood-soaked halls and the wailing that almost alerted the kingdom to what was happening, what had been happening for longer than Camilla remembered.

 _Even amongst the mothers, that was far too bloody,_ Camilla thought.

Camilla focused as she approached her mother’s door. She stopped her quiet steps and raised a fist. Camilla started with a soft knock below the handle, and then did a rapid trilling knock in the middle of the door. This was the knock her mother had taught her, and her mother used a different one when she was about to enter Camilla’s chambers.

“Enter, Camilla,” her mother said. Her voice smooth and flat. Calm, unflustered.

It was safe to enter.

Camilla surveyed the hall. Once she was sure that she was alone, save her mother’s servants lurking in the shadows, she opened the door and slipped inside. Where the hall had been dimly lit and full of shadows hiding everything from an untrained eye, her mother’s quarters were well-lit and lit the room as if it were day in another kingdom. Camilla closed the door. She kept her hand against the door.

Her mother, Lady Nikola, approached with open arms from beside her smooth bed. Camilla pushed herself from the door and allowed her mother to embrace her.

Camilla’s face pressed against a puffy dress. Today’s dress had lots of sunset colors, with red and orange catching Camilla’s eyes as her mother gripped her back. Camilla raised her arms and returned the hug. One hand slipped between folds in the dress, and Camilla felt the hard leather of her mother’s armor.

Camilla had not inherited her mother’s extravagant sensibilities for disguise, though she remembered the color and the hours of dressing as a little girl. Her mother had only recently allowed her to dress on her own, and Camilla wore a mix of leather armor and courtly finery that did not displease Lady Nikola too much.

“All is well?” her mother began. She pulled Camilla tighter against her. Camilla turned her head, freeing her mouth from her mother’s dress.

“Yes, mother,” Camilla answered. “No one has made a move to act or speak in outside of the shadows, or even in them.”

Lady Nikola released Camilla. Camilla lowered as her mother turned and walked further into the room. She watched her mother walked to one of the many wardrobes in the room. Her mother walked to the fourth wardrobe on the left. The one where Lady Nikola kept all weapons locked. Her mother unlocked the wardrobe.

“Look up, Camilla,” Lady Nikola said.

“Mother?” Camilla asked. She raised her hand, and extended her hands out towards her mother.

Lady Nikola held a shiny dagger in her hand. Camilla frowned, but did not speak as her mother approached. The blade lay flat on Camilla’s gloved hands.

“I taught you, since you were four, to only go for those above you or those making a move. That has been our philosophy for ten years since your sister perished when she went after, and failed, to kill the current heir.”

“Has there been a threat, mother?” Camilla asked.

She kept her face blank, but she could not stop the shiver at the reminder at what Irene had done. Camilla did not remember Irene, only her portrait, but she and Xander and everyone important in the court knew who Irene had gone after. And so Lady Nikola had repented by other going after those who would fight back, who would not have to rely on a princess barging in when the king is playing with his son.

Camilla’s mother placed her hands on Camilla’s face, which dragged Camilla out of those dark thoughts. They were cold. Her mother ran her nails over Camilla’s cheeks.

“The war could end soon” Lady Nikola said. “It is time to be bold.”

Camilla wrapped her hand the dagger’s hilt. She dropped one arm to the side. Camilla nodded at her mother. Lady Nikola flashed a smile of gleaming teeth.

 _Are we to make the first move?_ Camilla thought. _Instead of reacting?_

Camilla would listen to her mother. Her mother always chose wisely. Even this felt…Camilla pushed down the feeling. Her mother knew best - she’d lost Irene, and seen the bloodshed for far longer. She _must_ know a way to end it all now.

“Who am I to go after, mother?” Camilla asked.

Camilla hoped it wasn’t Xander. While it was true if he were to die, she would be the immediate heir, she loved her brother and it would cause her other siblings to scramble with their mothers to make the next move.

“Leo.”

Camilla’s eyes widened and her mother started to open. Lady Nikola watched her with unblinking eyes.

Leo was a baby. He had done nothing other than be born with royal blood. He wasn’t a threat yet. _His mother_ wasn’t a threat yet.

Lady Nikola pressed her fingers into Camilla’s face. If the nails were sharper, or if her mother dug deeper, Camilla would bleed.

“Do you understand?” Lady Nikola asked.

“I understand mother. I understand what you ask of me.” Camilla answered. She lowered the hand holding the dagger. She gripped it tighter, and her fingers hurt. Her eyes felt wet. “I love you.”

Lady Nikola blinked and opened her mouth. Camilla had broken the ritual. Camilla never learned if it was a rebuke or if her mother was going to amend the ritual to Camilla’s mistake. Camilla shoved the dagger into her mother’s chest.

“I love you, but I wish to not follow you.”

Lady Nikola had always told her Irene had been impatient. Camilla swallowed back the doubt as blood spilled down the hilt and over Camilla’s hand.

Tomorrow she could probe her mother’s words, tonight she must finish what she has started. Camilla let go of the dagger. Her mother stumbled, gasping and glaring at her.

“You…” Her mother grabbed at Camilla’s arms.

“This war will end,” Camilla said. Tears streamed down her face. “I will be bold…but not with you behind me.”

Her mother gave one last, painful gasp. Then she went oh so very still. And Camilla caught her before she fell.

“Xander will listen to my plan,” Camilla said. “And whoever will not rally for peace will die on our blades. Your death will not be the last one. Is that fair, mother?”

Tears rolled down Camilla’s eyes. Her chest tightened. By the Dusk Dragon, what if they all turned their blades on her? She had spilled the first blood since the execution, Xander might even rally with the others and not her.

But maybe, maybe...

Camilla pulled the dagger from her mother’s chest, and hugged what had once been Lady Nikola and wailed.

No one burst in, not even Lady Nikola’s personal servants. And no one spoke when morning came of what had happened that night between Camilla and Lady Nikola.

**Author's Note:**

> If I need to add anymore tags, do let me know! I was just guessing which would be best and make for the safest reading experience. I don't think the violence is super graphic, for one, but better safe than sorry that my threshold was off.
> 
> And there's a smidge of sibling bonding at the beginning. A small kindness considering where it all ended up lol
> 
> I hope you all had fun! Hopefully I won't be super slow (which is...doubtful) about working on the main works of this series, as well as adding other smaller works for my fanon FE multiverse thing I've got going on.


End file.
